Kings, Knights, and Pawns
by penwielder
Summary: Rather AU. After joining the Castle Guard, Link experiences many things, friendship, trouble, responsibility, the beauty of a Princess he can only hope to be worthy to protect, and the betrayal of those who should have his back, all as the shadow of a desert ambassador appears and darkens the castle's door. Not tied to any particular game. WARNING: Contains Corporal Punishment.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **This is the first story I've written in a while, and I'm a bit rusty. It's likely to start slow in the first few chapters, but if you have comments, suggestions, or questions, feel free to comment or PM me. This is pretty obviously AU, but if its not clear, I make no profit nor claim any official characters or places (Link, Zelda, Gannondorf, Hyrule, etc), just my OCs.

Chapter One

A muffled yelp escaped from the closed door, having followed closely a surely painful crack of the sergeant's cane.

Link sighed. He had hoped that they would all get away with extra guard duty, and not a caning, but he couldn't convince himself that they didn't deserve it. Especially when Sergeant had caught them in the act of fighting, and they had ignored her order to stop. Well, he had ignored her order to stop. This was going to be bad, and not even the satisfaction of having blackened Kalmar's eye outweighed that.

His sense of unease settled even lower as the strokes passed the half-dozen mark, signaling that they were all headed for a full dozen.

"I was hoping she wouldn't be that angry..."

Link looked up at the other solider and shrugged.

"At least Sgt Ruggart wasn't the one who stumbled across us,' Julian continued, standing to pace, "Can you imagine having to face her after he'd worked us over and she had to hear it second-hand?"

"I'm not so sure that that circumstance is factoring into her think-"

Another yelp had escaped, followed by two sharp, quick stokes of the cane, another, more panicked yelp, and then silence. There had been a dozen, and Link felt very grateful that they had ended.

Link's stomach dropped another notch, and Julian stopped pacing, both staring at the heavy oaken door in dreaded anticipation. A few minutes of muffled talking passed, before the sorry-looking boy they were expecting opened the door and slowly stepped through, his eyes turned downward.

He was followed by Sergeant, who stood glaring at both Link and Julian until the doorway was cleared. Link quickly downward, not wanting to meet her remonstration yet. Or ever.

"Julian." She stated, gesturing inward.

Link glanced up as Julian straightened and marched to the door, passing the angry woman with reluctant haste.

"Good luck, mate." He said, as the door began to close.

"Luck will not avail any of you today." The stern voice rang out as the door slammed.

A chortle turned Link's ears a further red as he burned in shame. He turned to the man who had silently appeared from further down the castle hall.

"Uncle!" he said plaintively, before remembering his place and standing to attention, "I'm sorry, sir, I should not have been so informal!"

Goddesses! He was in so much trouble today!

"Don't worry about it, lad." the man waved Link's words aside, and sat across from him, nodding for him to do the same, "I've been your uncle much longer than I've been a superior. Besides, you appear to be in enough trouble at the moment."

Link nodded, staring uncomfortably at the floor, suspecting that his ears were still burning.

"It's just that you've been in Kakariko since before I joined the castle guard, and I haven't have a chance to adjust to calling you by your rank." He shuffled his feet against the stone floor.

"So, what's your grave misdeed?"

Link further lowered his head.

"You can't expect me to believe that you're about to get a caning for no reason," said the man, his voice tinged with humor, "I wager that the black eyes from the other boys and your split lip have something to do with it."

Link sighed, tensing as the first crack landed. No yelp, Julian was made of stern stuff, for all his nervous pacing.

"Kalmar, the guard who left a few minutes ago, is one of another section's guards, the Northern Wall, had been harassing one of our new trainees with some of the others. Julian and I tried to confront him while he was alone, and it..." Link shrugged, "It didn't end peacefully."

He'd argue that Kalmar had started it, but that simply wasn't true.

The half-dozen mark had passed, and Link listened in dread for the end. He both wished that he had but was grateful he hadn't gone first.

"Well," his uncle said, gazing up at the ceiling, hands laced behind his head, "I can't condone fighting, you and your fellow guards need to be able to work together and settle your differences calmly, regardless of your good intentions."

"Yes, sir." Link said, softly. He knew that, he truly did.

"It'll be over soon, and I expect that it'll do you some good."

"Yes, sir." He wasn't so sure that he agreed.

The strokes had stopped. They waited, Link in tense silence, his uncle staring at the ceiling.

"You won't tell my father?" Link asked.

"You know he's bound to find out."

"Yes."

"It won't be from me."

"Thank you."

The door opened, Link stood hastily, his stomach lurching from both the nerves and the sudden movement. Julian's eyes were reddened, but he kept his gaze steady, looking past Link as he slowly walked away.

"Commander, is there something you need?" Sergeant's stern voice didn't soften, but the tone was professional, as if the woman weren't angry at all. She was good at adapting to any situation, Link greatly admired that.

"I do, but I believe it can wait until your business with this young man is concluded."

Neither gratefulness nor annoyance at the lack of further delay gripped Link, but rather the leaps of his stomach.

"Very well, sir." She turned to Link, her glare returning, "Get in."

"Yes, ma'am." Link said, his words thick. He slid past Sergeant, making very sure not to brush her as he entered the room.

He stood at attention before her desk, trying very hard to ignore the cane that lay upon its surface.

Sergeant spoke to Link's uncle for a few minutes, no doubt assuring herself that she wasn't delaying anything important, but Link didn't hear her words, only the pounding of his heart.

He did, however, hear the heavy oak door close, and swallowed anxiously.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: **Second update, again, feel free to review and critique. I also feel I need to reaffirm that there is corporal punishment in this series. I put a warning in the summary, but in case you missed it, **there is corporal punishment in this story**. Link's probably around 15 or 16, and in ancient times (on which Hyrule I imagine is partly inspired by) corporal punishment for a teen his age (and children a lot younger) was rather common. That being said, **Don't like? Don't read! Or at least don't read and then get angry about it, because I've warned you.**

Chapter Two

"I am pleased to know that you are not the type of person that would rely on family bonds to keep yourself out of trouble, Link."

"Of course not, Sergeant," Link said, swallowing, "Nor would either of the commanders be the type to oblige. I'll stand by my own actions."

"And take the fall for them."

"Yes, ma'am." He felt her glare, and swallowed again, feeling extremely guilty.

He chanced a glance over at her, still standing at attention. She studied him at moment, and then walked over to the window, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Well, I've heard the others' accounts, what have you to say for yourself?"

"Well, ma'am..." Link paused a moment, trying to gather his thoughts, and made the mistake of looking down at the cane, and grimaced.

"Julian and I noticed, some time ago, that Kalmar was taking the hazing of our newest recruits too far and we have been trying to confront him peacefully. We both went to him in the dining hall today in an attempt to talk to him about it, and found that he was..."

Link bit his lip, trying to figure out the best way to describe the situation, and looked down at the floor.

"You're at attention," Sergeant mentioned, which snapped Link back to attention, "Kalmar was enforcing physical exercise as a penalty for young Gavin not having memorized protocol, Julian told me. Nothing that warrants or excuses two of my best soldiers scuffling with Sgt Ruggart's riffraff. Rather procedure, actually."

"Yes, Sergeant, but it wasn't the pushups that bothered us, but the taunts."

Link's anger rekindled at the memory, although tempered by the current circumstances.

"And he started pushing at Gavin when he stood back up, and that's when we intervened today."

"Intervened?" The petite woman walked into his line of vision and stared into his eyes, daring him to lie, sitting against her desk.

"I decked him." Link said lowering his head, seeing her raised eyebrows, and trying to avoid her angry glare. Perhaps he shouldn't have been so direct.

"You decked him."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Kalmar did mention that one of you two had started the fight, he couldn't say who, and I assumed that he had taken liberties with the story. That surprises me, it's not like you."

"I didn't exactly give him a chance to see who had hit him."

"You didn't try to confront him?" Link glanced up at her, noting the surprise in her voice.

"Neither Kalmar or Julian told you?"

Now he was just digging himself a deeper hole.

"We've tried talking to him about this in the past, without any results," he said hurriedly, trying to gloss over his earlier words. "Julian yelled at him to knock it off, Kalmar yelled 'Make me', I walked over and punched him when he turned around."

It sounded so much worse out loud.

"The ice thin enough for you yet?" The woman sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose again. "So, you started the altercation, Julian backed you up, and when I entered you three were all fighting?"

"Yes, ma'am, though I believe we hadn't been fighting for that long."

Sergeant nodded.

"And your blatant disregard for my orders to decease?"

Link couldn't answer her, couldn't look her in the eye, just stared at the cane on her desk, wondering if it was the guilt or fear that was pulling the knot tight in his throat.

"I understand the need to protect your fellow soldier, and the frustration that comes when someone refuses to acknowledge your reasoning, but your response was inappropriate." she said, voice firm.

Link looked up, resolving to pay attention.

"I will speak to Sgt Ruggart about his soldier's behavior, but in the future, you will come to me or another superior when peaceful confrontation does not work. Although we don't all like each other, we must be able to handle these sort of issues peacefully. Soldiers must be able to rely on each other, and we cannot do that if we're fighting."

Sergeant moved from the front of her desk and picked up the cane, her voice becoming more stern.

"You most certainly will not attack other soldiers, drag your friends into fights, and then ignore my or any others' orders to stop. Do you understand?"

Link nodded, uttering a soft "yes, ma'am."

"I don't see any reason to not proceed, do you have anything further to say?"

He shook his head, wordless.

"Well, then, " she said, gesturing, "Let's not drag this out. Pants down, over the desk."

Link shuffled forward the few steps, awkwardly undoing his pants and letting them drop as he gathered his tunic up and leaned forward. He folded his arms and rested them on the desk, burying his face in them and staring sightlessly at the dark wood, blushing hard, although grateful that the woman wasn't demanding his shorts down as well. He knew though, that in a moment he wouldn't be concerned about that.

He tensed, and then started at the light tap of the cane as Sergeant chose her placement.

A tap or two more, and then silence as Sergeant drew back her cane for real.

Link heard the whistle and snap of impact, and then inhaled sharply as a thin band of fire cracked along his rear, stinging intensely. He had forgotten how badly this hurt!

Another whistle and snap and Link gritted his teeth, trying to focus on something other than the pain. She had landed the cane slightly lower than the first stroke, and proceeded to aim lower the next three strokes.

He bit back a yelp as the next stroke cut over the spot joining his rear to his thighs, where he would most definitely be feeling it when he sat for the next few days, and squeezed his eyes shut tightly, urging the tears that were rapidly forming back, and biting hard on his shirt sleeves. He began praying fervently, wondering how he was going to survive.

He had only been caned once before, for not showing up to guard duty after forgetting that he had a shift, and it had been a half dozen strokes by a man that had been trying to go rather light on him, fearing reprisal from Link's father. Although it hadn't gone well for him, when word had gotten back to Link's father, the man had been replaced by Sergeant and Link had the matter revisited painfully when both he and his father had gone home together the next week.

That caning had still hurt, but this was incredibly worse. The sting from the first strokes reignited as the woman placed more strokes along the welts already there, forcing a sob and tears from Link as the burn throbbed, and then a yelp and an actual howl as the last three strokes swiftly landed again on the sensitive flesh just above his thighs.

Link breathed heavily, leaning against the desk, face fully buried in his arms. He started a little a few minutes later as he felt a hand on his upper back, and tilted his head to see.

"Can you stand?" Sergeant asked, her voice finally gentle, she was no longer angry.

He nodded, and pushed himself off the desk stiffly, fighting the urge to knead away the pain.

Sergeant looked away and leaned the cane against the desk, allowing him to retrieve his pants with some dignity.

"I'm sorry about all of this," Link said, trying to keep his voice from breaking, wiping his eyes, "I shouldn't have been fighting."

"We all make mistakes, you actually much less than others," Sergeant said, with a small hint of a smile, "Hopefully the next time your temper rears up, you'll think back to this and think twice."

Link nodded, shuffling a little.

"You're forgiven, though I'm adding a full two weeks' worth of extra guard duty and chores to your schedule to remind you of the necessity of obeying orders. Starting tonight. You'll have the early evening watch in addition to the late watch this evening."

"Yes ma'am. And thank you, for your forgiveness."

"You're a good lad, and a good soldier, I'm confident I won't see you in here for this again." she said, herding Link towards the door.

"Absolutely not, Sergeant."

She opened the door, and Link passed through, noting that his uncle was still there, now standing solemnly. He lowered his eyes as he walked forward, expecting to be stopped and comments made. He paused to come to attention, but his uncle just patted him on the shoulder and dismissed him.

"No use keeping you here, lad," the man said, "Go lick your wounds and be about your business."

"Yes, sir." Link said, walking away stiffly and trying to keep his head held high.


End file.
